The dictionary defines consistency as “steadfast adherence to the same principles, course, form, etc.” In the world of Human Resources, consistency is a very important concept. Under the law, the same rules must be applied fairly across the board to all individuals when it comes to hiring, training, and firing employees. Anything less leaves your company open to expensive fines and possible lawsuits.
When reviewing your company for consistency in policy, the employee performance review process should be carefully examined. It is essential that performance reviews be conducted the same way across the company since they are so crucial to major decisions regarding compensation and development. This is going to involve an ongoing, yearly, face-to-face meeting between Human Resources professionals, managers, and their supervisors. During this meeting, each employee review should be discussed, with the manager explaining the reasons for their ratings. The idea behind this is not to judge the managers, but rather to move them into alignment regarding how they are rating employees.
In order to eliminate some of the subjectivity that naturally arises in one-on-one performance reviews, your company may consider a system where two or more individuals evaluate each employee each year. This could be a manager, their supervisor, and a peer who works in a similar job, or perhaps a group of employees the individual has worked on in a team setting. Another way to help curb subjectivity is to provide managers with a list of words and comments that are appropriate, as well as a list of those that are inappropriate to use in a performance review.
By keeping the lines of communication open and making the training process surrounding performance reviews ongoing, you will find company morale is greatly improved. This newfound consistency will strengthen trust between employees and their managers, as well as increase overall job satisfaction.